Details about the Las Vegas shooter will emerge in the days to come — his political leanings, whether he bought his guns legally or illegally, whether any gun-control policy or new regulation could have altered the outcome — and none of that matters.

Because this is the story we’ve lived, again and again, less shocking every time: A man. A powerful weapon. Dozens of dead bodies.

The majority of Americans want smarter gun control. The majority of Americans don’t want to be killed at the movies, or at a concert, or during first-grade story hour, but none of that matters, because the folks driving this train have decided that this is the way we live — that to be free means to accept the deaths, every few months or years, of dozens of Americans.

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In the wake of the Las Vegas massacre, we need to rethink the logic that's driving our gun laws(Photo: Mike Thompson/Detroit Free Press)

Our Second Amendment rights could be preserved, while Americans are kept safe. We’ve said this again and again. Smart policy could make it harder for unstable killers to acquire and use firearms. Loopholes in existing laws could logically be closed, without infringing on Americans' right to own guns. The ATF could be empowered to do its job; the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention could be allowed to study this deadly epidemic.

We’ve asked for it over and over.

We’ve lost.

This fight is over. It was over after 26 first-graders and school workers were murdered in Newtown, Conn. It's over now. Our lawmakers will continue to work to loosen, not tighten, gun laws. Each piece of information about Paddock will be presented as exculpatory evidence, showing how this policy or that law couldn't have made a difference, that nothing could have stopped him. We'll watch, transfixed, as we learn more about the victims, as we see images of their grieving families, the devastation left by this attack.

And we will do nothing.

There's not much more to say. Las Vegas is the deadliest mass shooting in America. Anyone care to guess how long that designation will stand?

So to our political opponents, congratulations — this is the world you wanted.